Until July, 2022 Julian Alston served as a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and as the director of the Robert Mondavi Institute Center for Wine Economics at the University of California, Davis.  Alston is an agricultural economist known for his work on the economics of agricultural and food policy.  His recent projects have emphasized science & technology policy and the economics of agricultural innovation; and food & nutrition policy, and the global challenges of poverty, malnutrition, and obesity.  He is a Fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, a Distinguished Scholar of the Western Agricultural Economics Association, a Fellow of the American Association of Wine Economists, and an Honorary Life Member of the International Association of Agricultural Economists.